page_title: Gary Johnson 2016 presidential campaign
section_title: Post-nomination
hierarchical_section_title: Gary Johnson 2016 presidential campaign / Campaign / Post-nomination
caption_attribution_description: I made these photos at the first Libertarian Party political rally of the 2016 campaign season, for President and Vice-President. It was held on the campus of The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada) on August 5th.
context_page_description: The 2016 presidential campaign of Gary Johnson, the 29th Governor of New Mexico, was announced on January 6, 2016, for the nomination of the Libertarian Party for President of the United States. He officially won the nomination on May 29, 2016, at the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Florida, receiving 56% of the vote on the second ballot. Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld was endorsed by Johnson for the Libertarian vice-presidential nomination, which he also received on May 29, 2016.
  Johnson and Weld formed the first ticket of any party to feature two governors since the 1948 presidential election. They received nearly 4.5 million votes nationally, dwarfing Johnson's 2012 popular vote total and marking the Libertarians' most successful presidential run to date and the most successful third-party candidacy since Ross Perot in 1996.
context_section_description: Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and also a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, said he would consider supporting the Johnson-Weld ticket. Romney remarked that, "if Bill Weld were at the top of the ticket, it would be very easy" for him to do so. On June 22, Johnson and Weld participated in a nationally televised Town Hall hosted by CNN. On August 3, Johnson and Weld returned to CNN for a second nationally televised town hall. It was viewed by over 1.61 million people.
  Beginning on August 12, a pro-Johnson political action committee, America Deserves Better PAC, began running television ads in Maine. On August 17, Johnson and Weld attended a Libertarian town hall hosted by Fusion. In August, Johnson's poll numbers began to approach the 15% threshold necessary to make him the first third party candidate in recent history to participate in the broadcast, fall Presidential debates. Johnson also began doing major rallies.  On August 5, about 500 people turned out to a rally in Reno, Nevada. The following day he attended an event at the University of Utah.
  On August 17, Johnson and Weld attended a town hall, attended by about 600 people, at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center in Miami, Florida. The following day, Johnson and Weld held a Las Vegas, Nevada rally at The Foundry SLS Las Vegas. The campaign held events in Burlington Vermont, Concord, New Hampshire, Lewiston, Maine, where pro-Johnson super-PAC ads were being aired, and Boston, Massachusetts, home of Bill Weld. The campaign also added a brunch with Johnson and Weld in Portland, Maine.  Over the weekend, hundreds of people attended each of the rallies.
  In early September the Gary Johnson campaign began its first wave of paid TV ads. They were targeted at the Western states of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington and the northeast state of New Hampshire. Purple PAC began airing pro-Johnson television ads in August. In early September, Americans Deserve Better super-PAC announced that support for Johnson has nearly doubled in Maine's 2nd congressional district.
  In response to Johnson's growing poll numbers, the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic allies increased their criticism against Johnson in September 2016,  warning that "a vote for a third party is a vote for Donald Trump" and deploying Senator Bernie Sanders (Clinton's former primary rival and now-supporter) to win over voters who might be considering voting for Johnson or for Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Democrats circulated "embarrassing videos of Johnson" and directed more resources toward winning "young voters and left-leaning independents" - a key Johnson demographic.
caption: William Weld and Gary Johnson at a rally in Reno, Nevada, August 2016
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D600", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2016:08:06 00:14:00", "Image Artist": "Darron R. Birgenheier", "Image Copyright": "darron@birgenheier.com", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1088", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "17105", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "500", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:08:05 19:35:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:08:05 19:35:12", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1165241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "90", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "54886891/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "54886891/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3007389", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[70, 300, 4, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6"}